A dog-awful mess that deserves to be dumped in the nearest litter bin
Marmaduke, the Great Dane, began life as a newspaper comic strip in 1954. While I’m sure his adventures were popular with many during his printed run, his life on screen has been far less inspiring. ..
In 2010, director Tom Dey made a live-action movie featuring the enormous hound, which was a flop with one movie critic calling it the “runt of the litter” when comparing it to other talking dog movies. ..
Movies featuring talking dogs often fail, but that’s not why so many of them are made. Studios often say they make them for the kids, but this is really little excuse for producing so many doggy flops (flops).
Marmaduke, the second go-round for the loveable Great Dane, is fully animated and might come as a relief to those who are tired of seeing real animals paraded around on screen for the sake of our entertainment. But is it any good? In short, no! ..
The problem with this story is that it’s not particularly interesting. The dog trainer is a bit of a lovable rogue, the Winslow family are nice and the dog is cute but there’s nothing really going on.
The writing is funny, but the story is a mess. The dialogue barely raises a titter, and the plot relies on fart jokes instead of genuinely funny comedy scenarios. Kids will probably tire of it before the closing credits mercifully start to roll. ..
The animation in Marmaduke is terrible. This is a surprise as Mark A. Dippé, a former visual effects artist who worked on such movies as Jurassic Park, The Abyss, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, directed the film. Unfortunately, his work doesn’t seem to meet the standards set by other directors involved in the project.
The Mitchells Vs The Machines was a great looking movie, but this one is not as good-looking. The art style is suitably wacky and it’s certainly very colourful, but the animation looks very stilted when in motion. It’s far from the likes of The Mitchells Vs The Machines which had slightly similar visuals but with characters that looked and moved far better within the computer animation techniques that were used.
This movie is a disaster and I don’t think anyone on either side of the camera should be associated with it. I would much rather see them all go away and never come back.
This movie is pandering to children and their parents. It’s not good for anyone.
There is little need, even for those kids that do chuckle at the sight of fart gas clouds and doggy drool, to let them watch something that fails to tickle both their funny bones and their brain cells. There are far more entertaining options out there for them to watch. ..
Marmaduke is a movie that is bottom-of-the-barrel and has more in common with such movies as Norm Of the North and Foodfight than The Mitchells vs The Machines and Ron’s Gone Wrong. Heck, even The Emoji Movie is better than this and that failed effort featured talking poop!
Don’t bother with this one - there’s nothing here for you. If you’re looking for an animated dog movie, consider Bolt or The Secret Life of Pets instead. Yes, those movies are a few years old now but they have more life in them than this tepid effort that has less meat on it than the bones your dog buries in the garden. ..
